This weekend and the weather - what did you do?

What a perfect sounding day you Oh You So Lucky People, and never forget it !!!-


Fritz Von Reflect and do it as often as you can³
SERIOUSLY

quote:

Originally posted by Berlin Fritz:
What a perfect sounding day you Oh You So Lucky People, and never forget it !!!-


Fritz Von Reflect and do it as often as you can³
SERIOUSLY

You've Cracked it between you, that's what it's all about, innit

Here in Central Parts Friday was glorious but I missed most of it as I didn't leave the house till after 4pm. When I started work at sunset, the outside temperature thermometer in the taxi* showed 19C. Nice!

Saturday I moved a mattress up from my parents' place in the afternoon - I'd waited for dry weather for this as the mattress is rather heavy and cumbersome. We had a nice nutritious lunch (not) at Burger King. The sun finally burned through the low cloud about two hours before sunset. I started work at 5pm and the temp display showed 14C - still not bad for what is the very end of Winter.

Towards the end of my shift (4am) the temperature had dropped to 7C out in the sticks, mist was forming and there was even enough drizzle from it for me to engage the intermittent wipers.

Yesterday (Sunday) the low cloud didn't clear at all and we managed only 11C according to the taxi's display.

I'm off work today and tomorrow so I guess it will rain.

*I have reason to believe that after 3 and a half years of driving this particular vehicle as a taxi that its thermometer is rather accurate. The highest I've seen it go was 38C at 7pm in early/mid August 2003 just North of Wolverhampton.

The lowest was in December 2001 when it recorded -8C in Hixon Staffs.

I wore one of my my thick down winter jackets to potter about with my bikes in weak sunshine and 2 degrees C. The permafrost started to melt late morning. Turning everything into a quagmire. The snow has now almost gone. A month after metre-deep drifts were blocking roads and our drive. The sudden melt caused a huge lake in the field behind us but is slowly receding now. First sign of pussy willows! Spring can't be far away now.

Went out driving in my new car.
John

Excellent choice Dr. Channing Welcome to the brotherhood of Pork.

Say hello over at boxa.net

Steve
986 2.7

Travelled 300 mile round trip for a night out in Newcastle.

Carried on building a cctv bird nesting box.

Trimmed this:

Knocked down staircase. (Deliberately).

Skip parked in front of garage by delivery men means Caterham completely failed to get driven on the first decent weekend of the year. Grrr.

Cycled big distance Sunday am. Now unable to walk properly.

Bruce

Went out clay shooting for the weekend (no change there), mucked out, fed & groomed horses (no change their either). Blew away a Homer Simpson toy with an airgun, thereagain, had a copper using my airgun doing the same!

Loitering at my club Saturday evening, went out to do a bit of bunny bopping but all the little blighters had gone to ground by the time I went looking. No bunny dinner on Sunday for any of us.

Neighbours are away on holiday at the moment so was also out with the DTS sountrack films, thought I was gonna get blown off the settee!

Steve.

Sunday was good.
Stripped down a leaking downpipe from the bathroom, cleaned all the joints, re-glued them and fixed it all back again. Looks like new. Cut the grass front and back and did the edges. Cooked lunch for the kids - never touched the broccoli, but ate all the asparagus and too many Yorkshire puddings. Then took them OUT of Brighton to Ashdown Forest where we searched for Winnie the Pooh's bridge, which of course is next to the house where Brian Jones died (Cotchford Farm), and you can nearly see the swimming pool if you stand on tiptoe. Ice creams on the way home and then put the sleepyheads to bed. Then my buddy came round to watch North By North-West (we are having a Hitchcock season) and I cooked some major pizza (mental note: need to get that stone slab for the oven to make the pizzas that fraction better). Few beers too.
This morning up early to get my daughter to school and my little guy to the babysitter so I can get to work. My wife has been in London this weekend shopping and she should be home this afternoon. I know she will have had a good time, but I also know that my Sunday was better.
Magic.
And the summer is still yet to start properly.

quote:

Went out clay shooting for the weekend

Actually I forgot I did that aswell, for only the second time in my life. Thought it was excellent. Started off pretty good, then went through a phase of missing every one.

Count'd

Make sure you wear ear muffs (forget plugs) as you could end up with tinnitus.

Regards

Mick

1. Watched a thrilling Div One game on Friday evening as West Ham drew 2-2 with Leicester City. This included the second best goal I've seen at a Upton Park (Keith Gillepsie).

2. Rode some BMX. I own.

3. Celebrated my best mate being named Financial Journalist of the Year with a monumental session (inc. a lovely young woman who tells a great Jeremy Clarkson anecdote that ends with him saying in best Top Gear voice "Prepare yourself. <Pause> For the best shag in the world").

4. Had hangover.

5. Opened curtains about 6pm.

I stayed at home and sulked writhing in self pity & jealousy over our Mat's BMX, innit.


Fritz Von Come on yew Irons

You can rest assured Fritz that a 37 year-old computer programmer trying to ride a BMX looks every bit as ridiculous as you might imagine.

Matthew Stillitsalarfinit

PS The Irons will be re-born when they give Strachan the job (fingers crossed)

On the best day Sat I spent in a lecture on the finer points of accounting and financial reporting (in Luton of all places)
Sunday I went out for my usual 30 mile bike ride with a few mates and took the kids to a local farm to see a bit of lambing in progress.

Sunday was the better day for pleasure.

quote:

Originally posted by count.d:

quote:

Went out clay shooting for the weekend

Actually I forgot I did that aswell, for only the second time in my life. Thought it was excellent. Started off pretty good, then went through a phase of missing every one.

The local constabularly deem me sensible enough to have a license So get to play with a semi-automatic shotgun which is fun but a bit annoying for others when empty shells bounce off their noggins

Only went through about 250 shells this weekend which wasn't too bad. My local club is having a charity shoot for a local disabled girl to help her lead a more normal life. It's a world record attempt on shooting 1000 clays each with a 5 man squad. The particular discipline s involved called DTL (Down the line) is made of a round of 25 clays per person which 2 shots allowable for each clay so they'll be doing 40 rounds each. Reckon it'll take 8 hours of near continuous shooting with the odd toilet breaks and refilling the traps. That's gonna hurt!

Steve.

Had a faaaaaaantastic feet massage on saturday.
Mmmmmmmmm......that thing takes me back to life.
Cleaned the garden and trimmed all the fruit-trees.
This year peaches, apples and apricots will be delicious.
Then set things up for new beer.
Last 50 bottles are laready gone........................

Well, if it weren't for John and his Porsche and Matthew and his celebrity friends I might not have tried to show off, but my weekend, splendid though it was, was not porsche laden. I can however out-do Matthew's drinking...

Saturday at home, in the garden - everso slight suntan generated, and weeding, sweeping and car cleaning accomplished. Sat eve. smashing meal with some friends.
Sunday - flew to St Etienne, drove on the N82 through the Parc Pilat towards Valence. The sky was cloudless, the temperature on the ground 22C, Radio Nostalgie to listen to (I'm a sucker for this, well anything with a chance of hearing Jacques Dutronc). There was still snow covering the Col de Republique and the temperature dipped until, after a good solo lunch in Annonay, I dipped into the Rhone Valley just south of Condrieu and drove along the brief stretch that is marked by St Joseph's steeply escarped vineyeard on the right. Into Tain l'Hermitage, site of probably the most valuable hill on earth, for a party at Michel Chapoutier's place, the theme of which was "Big(Great) Wines, Big Vintages, Big Bottles"

There were ten wines, served from bottles not less than a Jeroboam(4bts worth) most in Mathusalems(8). Each was a definition of the winemaker's art, and I was almost sorry I was drinking them (as opposed to tasting/spitting). Almost.

I have never got so riotously pissed on wine that, in all honesty, never dipped below fifty quid a mouthful. The stars were the white Hermitage L'Ermite 1995, the red Cote-Rotie La Mordoree 1990 and a sweet wine that the gods must drink, Hermitage Vin de Paille 2000.

All ten wines had a different course of food prepared for them by not one but two 3-Michelin starred chefs (one of whom got very amusingly pissed).

Michel Chapoutier himself, a genius who has crossed the line into lunacy, gave a speech that was so slurred my non-comprehension was not the fault of my French, before deciding to sing instead, at which everyone else joined in to spare his subsequent embarrassment.

The music was by a live jazz band of very high quality.

Amongst the two hundred or so people, there were four I knew - including one close friend - who I did not know would be there.

It was a warm, balmy and very summery evening the last part of which is a slight blur, but I got back to my hotel okay. This morning, not a shred of a hangover, before a walk around the medieval town of Tournon, perforated by a number of coffee stops, and a leisurely drive back to the airport in yet more sunshine. Today has, nevertheless, been a "working" day for which I will get paid!

An evening I shall remember for all my life I think. Doesn't get much better than that.

Red-nosed Rod

quote:

Originally posted by John Channing:
Went out driving in my new car.
John

And I overtook you. (Manly boast).

quote:

Originally posted by Adam Meredith:

quote:

Originally posted by John Channing:
Went out driving in my new car.
John

And I overtook you. (Manly boast).

and while you were overtaking him on the inside i took you both on the outside

The great weather inspired me to take out a company bike for a few days... A new CBR600RR, a bike that is much faster than it has any right to be...

Available in red, black or yellow (allegedly)

quote:

Originally posted by Nime:
Available in red, black or yellow (allegedly)

and blue here in the UK! as was the one i had the pleasure of riding

I get to pick up my new toy probably this weekend.

Triumph Daytona 600

Ex race instructor bike - know the people that own the race school. The one I'm getting is a 600, but should hopefully have the 650 in about 4 months when I sell this one

Steve.

Went for a gental spin (officer)on this